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Showing posts from January, 2014

Fascist Phone Bugging in Ukraine

“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.” If you are a protester, then you better drop your phone into a river: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/maybe-the-most-orwellian-text-message-ever-sent This appears to be one of the first public uses of a military portable nano cell site against citizens. Some examples of military small cell systems: http://xtca-systems.com/articles/optimizing-cell-defense-networks/ http://www.dailywireless.org/2012/11/19/uavs-flying-cell-towers/ http://www.dailywireless.org/2013/07/30/cell-tower-in-a-balloon/ One of the military EW techniques applied to identification of cell phones: http://www.dence.de/theme/Cakestrap/doc/Hasse13_GSMMobilePhoneIdentification.pdf This way one can create a modern fascist state, with no need for the traditional use of Nosy Parkers to spy on their neighbours. It can only get worse.

Ubuntu Alternate Desktops

Ubuntu Insecurity The default Ubuntu Linux Unity desktop is insecure and sends data to Canonical and others.  It can be configured so it won’t do that, but there is no easy way to prove that the fix actually works and any Unity desktop is automatically suspect.  Therefore it is best avoided altogether. All Linux distributions allow you to install multiple desktop systems and then select the one you want to use when you log in.  So, if you really want a nice and slow system and receive targeted spam, select Unity.  Otherwise, for a more responsive and secure system, select something else. Fix it Click the lens at the top left, search for a ' terminal ' and install the XFCE desktop: $ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential xubuntu-desktop That lot will ensure that you can use the system for software development as well.  Similarly, you can also experiment with LXDE, an even more snappy and somewhat simpler desktop alternative: $ sudo

Eagle Schematic Editor

NOTE: I now recommend KiCAD over Eagle: https://www.aeronetworks.ca/2020/02/kicad-schematic-and-pcb-design.html -ooOoo- I've been using Cadsoft Eagle for the schematics of little projects (Some not so little - 8 layers!) since about 2002, but since I don't use it all the time, every day, I can never remember the main editing commands, which makes each and every new project an exercise in frustration for a few minutes, until I figured out how to get started again. One of the funniest things of Eagle, is the Stop button - it took me a long time to discover its usefulness.  The Stop button terminates the sometimes annoying auto repeat feature of Eagle. Lately, I'm working on a Mac, which adds another wrinkle to it.  Eagle on a Mac is almost impossible to use without a 3-button mouse, so get a proper Bluetooth mouse and save yourself from a major head-ache. Here are some of my notes - really for my own reference, but maybe someone else finds them helpful too. Pr

Fedora 20 on Virtualbox

I have a love hate relationship with my Mac.  It is a great machine, but OSX is kinda clunky in some respects. One way to alleviate the pain is to run Linux in a virtual machine.  My favourite most hated Linux is Fedora.  It is somewhat bleeding edge, so sometimes it is good and sometimes it is badly broken and fixing it is half the fun. So, if you also need a Linux fix, here is a brief Fedora 20 how to guide. Make a VM On a Mac, forget about 2D or 3D acceleration in a VM, so any graphics is going to be sloooow.  This applies to VMware, Parallels and Virtualbox, so you can just as well use the free one and you have to use a light desktop system, since any fancy windowing features are going to be a drag. Download Fedora 20 LXDE spin here: http://spins.fedoraproject.org/lxde/#downloads Make a VM with 3GB RAM and 20GB HDD and enable all four Processor cores, to get some speed in the VM. Select the ISO file in the Settings, Storage, CDROM property Do not use LVM - keep it

CRCs and Serial Ports

Scope This mini guide explains how to append messages with CRCs and send them to a serial port.  Operating a serial port from the Linux Bash shell is very obscure and precious few people know how to do it. Once you know the tricks, it is extremely powerful and a big time saver over the more complicated and error prone alternatives. Also see this:  http://www.aeronetworks.ca/2014/07/fletcher-checksum-calculator-in-bash.html Get a set of CRC utilities from here: http://www.hampa.ch/misc-utils/index.html http://www.hampa.ch/misc-utils/misc-utils-0.2.2.tar.gz Install the tools: $ cd $ mkdir misc $ cd misc $ wget http://www.hampa.ch/misc-utils/misc-utils-0.2.2.tar.gz $ tar -zxvf misc-utils-0.2.2.tar.gz $ ./configure $ make $ su password # make install CRC Message Preparation: Prepare a message step by step: $ echo -en "\xa5\x10\x01\xca" > msg $ hex msg A5 10 01 CA # 00000000  .... $ crc -g crc16 msg 41cf Or modi

Opportunistic Encryption - Rewarding Good Behaviour

Years ago, the OpenSWAN project tried to implement IPV6 with opportunistic encryption, but the project failed due to ever increasing complexity.  Some alleged that the increasing encryption complexity and failure was pushed by NSA agents working inside OpenSWAN .  Be that as it may, there is new activity now, as a collective knee-jerk reaction against the pervasive snooping. Skype used to be a secure product and became immensely popular, because it was very easy to use, but it was purchased by Microsoft - a company world renowned for its insecure software products - and all calls are now recorded.  I don't like having a PFY American Military Policemen sitting in on every call I make , so I started to look for alternatives. One project of note, is the Redphone Android App from Whisper Systems: https://whispersystems.org/ This is a neat application for Android Smart Phones which can save you oodles of money, and also help you claw back some of your lost privacy. Redph